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home > collections > art of europe
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 |  | | Delight in a Wealth of European Masterpieces
From gilded icons of the Italian Renaissance to one of the largest collections of Monets outside of Paris, the MFA has artwork by highly celebrated artists, including Titian, Dürer, Rembrandt, van Gogh, Gauguin, and Renoir.
Collection News
Dutch Paintings on Loan
A remarkable Rembrandt portrait, considered one of the finest of his paintings in a private collection, and eight other important paintings by premier Dutch artists, are on view at the MFA, courtesy of collectors Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo. Read more about the Dutch paintings.
A Missing Van Gogh Discovered
Meta Chavannes, the MFA’s Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Paintings Conservation, in cooperation with Louis van Tilborgh, the Van Gogh research curator at the Van Gogh Museum, recently discovered a lost Van Gogh painting underneath an existing painting by the artist owned by the MFA. Read more about the Van Gogh. |
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Overview of the Collection
Ranging in date from the seventh century to the late twentieth century, the collection of over 22,000 artworks includes masterpieces by some of the greatest artists in history. Paintings on canvas, panel, ivory, copper, and in fresco are matched by sculpture and works of decorative art, including furniture, metalwork, ceramics and glass, and architectural elements.
The MFA's collections of European decorative arts and sculpture are among the largest and most significant in the United States. Boston's unsurpassed collections of English silver and porcelain are complemented by historically significant collections of French decorative arts of the eighteenth century. The sculpture holdings feature masterworks from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, as well as fine examples from the seventeenth to early twentieth centuries. In recent years, the collections of nineteenth-century and contemporary decorative arts have grown steadily.
The collection of approximately 1,600 European paintings includes masterpieces of Dutch, English, French, Italian, and Spanish art, with great depth in nineteenth-century French works by Barbizon, Impressionist, and post-Impressionist artists. In particular, the MFA holds one of the largest groups of paintings by Claude Monet outside of Paris, and the world's most extensive collection of paintings and pastels by Jean-François Millet.
The department acknowledges with gratitude The Getty Research Institute's Provenance Index, which helped in early stages of gathering provenance information for European paintings.
Questions
If you have any questions about a particular artwork from the European collection, whether or not you can find a record for it online, please send an e-mail to webmaster@mfa.org. If you have a particular question or concern regarding the provenance (history of ownership) of a work from the European art collection, please send an e-mail to provenance@mfa.org or visit the MFA's WWII Provenance Research Project Web site. |
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Highlights
Collection Tours
European decorative arts highlights
European paintings highlights
Interactive Tours
European decorative arts and sculpture highlights
European paintings highlights
Claude Monet
Rembrandt |
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Decorative Arts and Sculpture Online Tours
Overall Collection
More than 1,900 works of European decorative arts and sculpture from the seventh to the twenty-first century including all the current online information about objects in the European decorative arts and sculpture collection: English silver and porcelain, French decorative arts of the eighteenth century, European porcelain, and medieval sculpture and decorative arts.
View all European decorative arts and sculpture
Sculpture
More than 200 sculptures, including works by Renaissance, Medieval, and Modern masters such as Donatello, Jean-Antoine Houdon, Edgar Degas, Auguste Rodin, and Henry Moore.
View European sculpture
Romanesque Sculpture
Eleventh- and twelfth-century sculpture from Northern and Southern Europe.
View Romanesque sculpture
Gothic Sculpture
Thirteenth- to sixteenth-century sculpture from Northern and Southern Europe.
View Gothic sculpture
British Silver
Selections from one of the finest collections of sixteenth- to twentieth-century English, Irish, and Scottish silver, featuring work by Robert Adam, William Kent, and David Willaume I.
View British silver |
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European Paintings Online Tours
Overall Collection
More than 1,400 paintings from across Europe, featuring masterworks from the Middle Ages to the mid-twentieth century.
View all European paintings
British
Sixteenth- to mid-twentieth-century paintings from Britain, featuring notable works by Reynolds, Gainsborough, Constable, and Turner.
View British paintings
French
Sixteenth- to twentieth-century French paintings, including one of the largest and best collections of French Barbizon, Impressionist, and post-Impressionist paintings outside of France. Featuring works by Corot, Millet, Courbet, Manet, Degas, Cézanne, Monet, Renoir, Gauguin, and Matisse.
View French paintings
Italian
Late thirteenth- to mid-twentieth-century Italian paintings with masterworks by Duccio, Fra Angelico, Fra Carnevale, Botticelli, Titian, Rosso, Tintoretto, Canaletto, Tiepolo, and Morandi.
View Italian paintings
Northern
Fifteenth- to twentieth-century German, Flemish, Dutch, Netherlandish, and Belgian paintings, including works by Rogier van der Weyden, Hans Memling, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Rembrandt, Jacob Isaacksz, van Ruisdael, and Vincent van Gogh.
View Northern European paintings
Spanish
Fifteenth- to twentieth-century Spanish paintings, including major works by Zurbarán, Goya, Velázquez, and Picasso
View Spanish paintings |
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Special Selections Online Tours
Provenance Research
The MFA has undertaken special research on the history of ownership of its collection of European paintings, with particular attention to the Nazi era (1933 to 1945). This is the result of a growing awareness about the loss of artwork during World War II through illegal sales and seizures and looting in Nazi-occupied countries. For more information, visit the MFA's WWII Provenance Research project.
View European objects meriting special attention to the history of their ownership.
Manuscripts
View collection of rare twelfth- to fifteenth-century European manuscripts
White Fund Deposit
These paintings and watercolors were once owned by the Reverend William E. Wolcott of Lawrence, Massachusetts. Upon his death in 1911, the works of art became the property of the White Fund, a charitable trust. The White Fund placed most of these paintings on deposit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 1912; the rest were lent in 1989 and 1994.
NEW! Interactive tour of The White Fund Paintings and Watercolors
Become a Friend to Art of Europe—Join the Swan Society
Join the Swan Society to support and learn more about the Art of Europe department at the MFA. |
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